Bonus Tip: don’t leave the URL space blank. This is where your dot-com domain name goes. Don’t put your MySpace, Facebook, ReverbNation, SoundCloud, or Bandcamp link in there. Don’t bombard people with links in your description either. If you want to cross-promote, connect your Twitter account to individual social networking sites, and when you update from those sites, an update will be sent to your Twitter profile, and users can follow those links back to your various social profiles.

Following Other Users

The next step in setting up your Twitter account is following other people. If you don’t follow anyone, there may not be many people following you back.

But this doesn’t discount the need to be strategic about this. Following people haphazardly won’t get you very far.

Follow the reviewers, bloggers, or tastemakers in your particular genre.

That should get you off to a good start.

Tweeting

As the number of people following you grows, you will begin to reach more people with each of your tweets.

What this means is that you will want to keep new updates rolling out on a consistent basis. You don’t have to tweet all the time. You don’t have to flood people with new updates every minute or every hour.

Publishing five to six tweets daily (ideal) lets people know you’re still alive, you’re still working on something, and you still want to connect with them.

Tweet a song. This is relatively easy if you post a new song on SoundCloud and it is connected to your Twitter account. A tweet will automatically go out, letting people know that you’ve uploaded a new track.

Tweet about your recent performances. Also connect your blog to your Twitter account, and publish write-ups about your recent shows. This way, a tweet will automatically be sent out when you publish the post.

Give away free tickets to your shows. You could also run a fan contest in connection with this.

Give away free downloads. You could also run a fan contest in connection with this.

Run a poll. Ask your fans what song they want to hear at your next gig. Ask them about where they’d like to see you perform. Think of other interesting topics you could engage your fans with.

Conclusion

Don’t forget – social media is about connecting and engaging with people. It’s not a good idea to spam, scam, or publish useless and/or pointless content.

For example, if you have a contest, don’t flood people with the same tweet over and over again. Keep it to three times a day maximum.

Bonus Tip: if you happen to be a particularly busy artist/band, plan out your tweets in bulk or in advance using a tool like HootSuite. HootSuite allows you to schedule tweets months advance. You could plan out an entire month’s worth of tweets in one fell swoop and only have to do it once every month. Also see: How to Automate Your Social Media Marketing as a Musician

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David Andrew Wiebe has built an extensive career in songwriting, live performance, recording, session playing, production work, investing, and music instruction. In addition to helping musicians unlock their full potential, he also continues to maintain a performance schedule with Long Jon Lev and Adrenalize. If you'd like to be notified whenever the blog is updated, click here to subscribe.